Meet The Author (Alex Lewis)

How would I describe my ‘call’ to missions? Well, God took a young man’s lifelong love of travel, and crashed it together with a more recent love for Him.  It doesn't come much simpler than that. 

   

I grew up in a family that seemed to always be moving.  State to state, city to city, and house to house – in fact, I cannot even remember the first three or four houses that I lived in, but luckily I trust my parents words enough to believe that I really did live in Washington, Texas and Massachusetts at some point in my life.  In eighth grade the moving slowed but didn't halt as my family remained in the city of Fort Myers, Florida for several years, with no more than the occasional move to another part of town.

My parents were always very involved in the churches that we attended, and this did not change when we came to Fort Myers, but despite this church upbringing and my admittedly impressive knowledge of scripture growing up, it was not until the summer between my junior and senior years of high school that my life was really transformed.  My mom and siblings moved away to Texas that summer, and consequently I moved in with a friend so that I might finish out my high school with the classmates I had been with for the previous three years.  It was also during this summer that I became connected with a group of friends that God would quickly use to change my life forever.

These new friends were in love with God, but more importantly, they dwelt on how in love God was with humanity, which was a very flipped perspective for someone like me who had always seen my own love towards God as being the transforming factor to salvation.  But what I quickly began to see through my friends was that, aside from a revelation of God’s love for mankind, we can never truly understand what love is, which means that we will never know how to display it ourselves. 

This focus and realization transformed me.  I began to see people for the worth that God expressed was within them, and saw this gospel for the power that was within it, rather than just the knowledge that could be attained of or from it.  Love became the lens from which I saw the world.  People were no longer my target for religious disagreement or confrontation – but they became recipients of a love that is indescribable but fully expressible.     

This love began to travel with me as I took my first ever missions trip outside of the United States.  Flown three ours into Guatemala City, and then bused 11 hours north into the beautiful mountains of Guatemala, my friends and I lived for little more than a week in a rural city bringing love to the locals that we met.  All throughout the week God spoke clearly to my heart that foreign missions would be a huge part of my future! And so I returned six months later, to simply spend a summer living as a lone-American immersed in Spanish-Indian culture.  As far as my Spanish would carry me, I showed love to the locals and fell in love with the third world culture that I found myself in.

Seven months passed before I found myself traveling in foreign countries again – but this time as a backpacker.  I set out by myself for a month, simply living the cheapest life that I knew how to live and bringing God’s power and love to the culture that I had fallen so in love with the summer before.  After the first month, Joey Jennings met with me in Guatemala, and the two of us continued our venture south into other Central American countries for the following month and a half – enjoying the sites and people while we watched God be God.

Then came 60 Days Walking. 

After returning from our Central American travels, Joey introduced me to several friends of his – the staff of Beautiful Feet Ministries.  One thing led to another, and when Joey and I heard that God was sending us back to Central America, we felt very strongly that Beautiful Feet would be involved.  Both of our minds were quickly blown away by the ideas, hearts and backing that our friends gave to the journey that God had had invited us on.    

Now Joey, James, and I are making our final preparations for this new adventure with God.  I look forward to the honor of continuing to blog for the followers that are behind us on this journey, and cannot even begin to imagine all that the following months have in store.